Richard Collins: Problem solving and food safety in the animal kingdom

Otter cunning could help them thrive on reintroduction programmes

The oriental short clawed otter: listed as ‘Vulnerable’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The marshes on which it depends are being drained and animals are poached for their fur. Breeding programmes are underway in zoos

In 1921, an enterprising Southampton blue-tit pecked a hole in a milk-bottle cap. The lactose in milk causes diarrhoea in birds but cream, coming to the top in bottles, is low in lactose. 

The little entrepreneur had discovered, not just that cream is available, but that it is safe to drink. Other blue-tits, and some robins, copied the behaviour; by the 1950s, there were holes in the lids of bottles left on doorsteps throughout these islands.